I guess you could call me a “Late Bloomer.” Although I’d been writing nearly all my life, I began in earnest when I found myself widowed at age 70. I had previously published two books through a self-publisher and thought I could have done it better myself. When I was ready to publish The Shaman Stone in 2010, I approached a traditional royalty publisher who readily accepted the book. However, there were strings attached. I would no longer have any control over my book. After much soul-searching, I turned down their offer and formed my own independent publishing company, Grannygirl Books. I’ve never regretted that decision. It opened the door to a whole new realm of possibilities.

              With my background as an elementary school teacher, I thought my focus would be on children’s books but I found my books were enjoyed by “children of all ages.” That included my next book, The Flip-flop Year, which was basically a fictionalized memoir of a traumatic (in my mind) year in fifth grade during the 1940s. My main character was Jane and her antagonist was Richard, better known as Dick. (Remember the Dick and Jane Books?) I found the older set really related to it.

              My newly-found freedom as an independent publisher allowed me to write whatever I wanted and know I could publish it. I started a worm farm in my basement and, of course, had to write a book about it. I found the perfect illustrator for The Wriggles Worm Farm, eleven-year-old Cherese Bouley, who could draw worms with personality!

              I had served as a Ghost Tour Guide for the Anoka County History Center for ten years. Knowing my interest in the paranormal and my penchant for writing, the historian of the Anoka Masonic Lodge asked me to document the ghosts haunting the Masonic Lodge so it could be included on the Ghost Tour. And of course, I got a book out of it, The Haunting of the Anoka Masonic Lodge.

              A request for writers to research and write short biographies of the 72 Minnesota men who received the Medal of Honor resulted in a book, Minnesota Recipients of the Medal of Honor. I wrote four of the biographies for the book and saw to its publication on behalf of the Minnesota Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Since its publication in 2016, profits from the sales have raised money for Haven for Heroes, a veterans’ home on the site of the old State Hospital on the outskirts of Anoka. It was the first of the PowerPoint programs I developed. Minnesota historian Doug Ohman, raised it a level, using it as a basis for a PBS documentary.

              I wrote a quarterly column for the Anoka newspaper under the auspices of the Anoka County Historical Society. Seven years and 80 columns later, I gathered them up and published them in Digging up the Past: Unearthing the Stories of Anoka County.

              As a five-year-old, my oldest grandson loved to go fishing for “Normans.” That inspired me to conjure up Norman Northern and his friend, Wally Walleye and write four stories about their adventures. That was in 1995.  Twenty-three years later, my talented artist friend, Caryn Inderlee, retired and had time to illustrate Fish Tales: The Incredibly Cool Adventures of Wally Walleye and Norman Northern.

              In 2015 I took the first of my paranormal trips with Dave Schrader, host of Darkness Radio. Three years later, I published my adventures in History and Hauntings of the Emerald Isle. Based on that trip and two more to England and Transylvania with my paranormal peeps and Dave, I wrote Tracking Dracula through Ireland, England, and Transylvania. These books are the basis of my “Traveling on the Dark Side” PowerPoint series.

              I loafed during the three years of the COVID pandemic. Starting in 2022, I began to make up for it. I had written Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Granger, Grant, and Grandpa as a research paper for my college English class in the ‘80s. Back then the class joke was, “Everyone’s writing a ten-page research paper but June, she’s writing a book.” They were right. It was self-published in 2000, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the book, so I gave it a new cover and a new title, Great-Grandpa Henry and the Battle of Lookout Mountain, and republished it in 2023.

              I started writing The Other Side of Anoka in 2011. The first part of it, “Karen,” who was a Ghost Tour Guide in contemporary Anoka, was easy. My plan was to regress her to 1852 Anoka as “Carrie” and use her as a vehicle for writing a historical novel about the early beginnings of that city. But there were complications. Who and what would be included? How would I integrate them with my fictional characters to give the story feet and wings? Faced with a tremendous amount of research to give the novel authenticity, I wondered if it would be worth the effort. Would anyone want to read it? Then, in 2022 I took the plunge and spent the next two years working on it.  Published in April of 2023, just in time for the annual North Artists’ Studio Crawl in Anoka, it proved to be a big hit and resulted in my being named one of sixteen Anoka County Library’s Featured Authors for 2024.

After I had published my first few books, people began noticing. “How did you do that?” they asked. My teacher’s instinct kicked in, and I sat down and wrote a guide, How to Publish Your Book without Going Broke, and started teaching it as a class through Community Education. Soon, my son with a printing background joined me and together, over the years, we have helped dozens of people realize their dreams and see their books into print.

So, what’s next for this writer? I’m finishing up a comedy for old people. It’s just waiting for its cover. The title? Todd Elvis and the Three Octogenarians. I’ll keep you posted.